CBI probe sought into affairs of Indian Maritime University

Maritime Institutes Association has filed a petition in the Madras HC seeking a CBI probe into affairs of the Indian Maritime University for allegedly collecting exorbitant fee from at least 10 private nautical science institutes.

Chennai: The Maritime Institutes Association
has filed a petition in the Madras High Court seeking a CBI
probe into affairs of the Indian Maritime University for
allegedly collecting exorbitant fee from at least 10 private
nautical science institutes.

In a public interest petition, the Association also wanted
appropriate action against the Vice Chancellor and
disaffiliation of the institutions which had collected excess
fee, allegedly running into several lakhs of rupees per head.
The first bench, comprising Chief Justice M Yusuf Eqbal
and Justice T S Sivagnanam issued notices to the university
and the institutes, besides making it clear that admissions in
these institutes would be subject to outcome of the PIL.

The Association said a national-level common entrance test
for admission to the one-year diploma course was held on June
21, 2009, and the results were declared six days later.

Though there were 26 approved institutes offering this
course under the control of the Indira Gandhi National Open
University, this time around only 18 units were named in the
website.

The Association had earlier approached the court, alleging
that the university had permitted the other eight units to
admit students without participating in the test and seeking
admission to marine engineering courses only on basis of
entrance examination marks. However, this petition is still
pending hearing.
The PIL named nine institutes in Maharashtra, Andhra
Pradesh, Kerala and New Delhi which were collecting tuition
fees ranging from Rs 2.25 lakh to Rs 4.71 lakh for the
B.Sc (Nautical Science) course, in violation of all norms.

It also accused the vice-chancellor of granting affiliation
to a new maritime academy which was not previously approved by
the Director General of Shipping.

Despite clear-cut provisions empowering the university to
act against erring institutes and availability of evidence, it
has not done anything; the petition said and prayed that IMU be
restrained from allotting any seats to the nautical science
courses for the coming academic year.